Crowd Watch 2014 part 3

[CowboyFuriousFury]

League fans are heartland this and that, yet crowd figures in self proclaimed heartland dont look like one. Its time for supporters to see the bigger picture and see the benefits of expansion. The insular and narrow mindness needs to end.other codes can expand but league has a mental block in doing so.

 

[insert.pause]

Looks like there could be more players then fans in Canberra atm.

 

[newman]

League fans are heartland this and that, yet crowd figures in self proclaimed heartland dont look like one. Its time for supporters to see the bigger picture and see the benefits of expansion. The insular and narrow mindness needs to end.other codes can expand but league has a mental block in doing so.

Thanks for that. If anyone needs me I'll be out the back changing my outlook, removing the mental block and getting pumped for expansion.

 

[BunniesMan]

A solid 6k in Canberra.

 

[newman]

Dub post

 

[newman]

A solid 6k in Canberra.

It wouldn't be that bad if the people of Coffs Harbour HAD GOT OFF THEIR ARSES and made the effort to go. And they call themselves a heartland. Disgraceful.

 

[Billythekid]

Very easy to average 15 k with Slater, Cronk and Smith in the team...and the fact they haven't missed the finals in ages! Lets see how they go if they have a poor season!

I know this probably sounds counter intuitive but i think permanently being on the top of the ladder isn't necessarily as good for crowds as everyone thinks. I think lean periods help to galvanize a fan base. I'm not sure what the reason is but the teams who just sit at the top don't seem to really see much benefit from it.

I think sitting at the bottom of the ladder obviously hurts crowd numbers but when things turn around it gives a big boost. It makes people hyped because they may not be used to success and may not be sure when they will see it again. There isn't as much excitement about it when you are always successful.

 

[Brutus]

So much derp about Canberra crowds.

 

[BunniesMan]

8094 in Canberra.

That is the 3rd lowest of the season and their lowest.

That also gives us a round total of 109254 and a round average of 13656.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Perth Red for a new Perth franchise to succeed you need a hell of a lot of luck. You need just about everything to go your way and then even more luck.

You would need:

-A few superstar players
-Top 4 or at least a Top 8 Franchise for a few good years
-Cheap memberships/Tickets
-Lots of promotion
-Favourable scheduling
-A brand that people can relate to. Best I've seen so far is the Brisbane Broncos and how they've monopolised the whole town.

Look at the Titans struggling in one of Rugby Leagues heartlands and they have a pretty good team. How long did Slater/Inglis/Smith/Cronk/Orford/Floau just to name a few play in front of 6,7 or 8K piss poor turnouts. What's to say that all those Souths/Warriors fans from last Saturday night would go to games regularly to support the new Perth franchise.

The NRL wont just bring in a new franchise because it takes a good 10 sometimes 15 years to establish by which time they'd lose millions even if the team did average 15K.

I'm not saying that it wont ever happen I just cant see it happening anytime soon given that at the moment only the Broncos and Rabbitohs make a marginal profit every year.(Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this one)

The NRL will need something new to take to the table in 2017 if they want to add to the $1.125 B tv rights deal... If they just go with status quo they will get the same or maybe less, going by the drop in tv ratings, push to online devices etc.

If they walk in to the negotiating table, with an 18 team comp, with Brisbane 2 and Perth on the table, we could see something like $1.5B over 5 years...

Yeah Perth will burn money for 10+ years, but they will be adding approx $20M a year to the TV pie..

The NRL though will need to get tough on the broadcasters though and demand all perth games are shown on a FTA channel for 5 years minimum, then if they are smart they will schedule them around the WCE and Freemantle teams,

They should also promise the WA gov 2 state of origin games, and ongoing test matches from 2019 on but it has to be played at a rectangular configured burswood stadium..


The major advantage NRL has over AFL is more bullets in the gun... and perth is a big bullet

 

[Iafeta]

Deadset gee up. There wasn't 8k there. Seriously be lucky to be 3-4k there.

 

[insert.pause]

Deadset gee up. There wasn't 8k there. Seriously be lucky to be 3-4k there.

Counting fingers and toes.

 

[lockyno1]

Every fan counted 3 times? If there was 8k there....

 

[Billythekid]

Look at the Titans struggling in one of Rugby Leagues heartlands and they have a pretty good team. How long did Slater/Inglis/Smith/Cronk/Orford/Floau just to name a few play in front of 6,7 or 8K piss poor turnouts.

RL has a much stronger background in Perth than it ever did in Melbourne. We have already seen that they could get fans when they did have a team. The situations simply aren't comparable at all.

As for the titans they have their own issues. Their stadium is in a terrible spot and their ticket prices are far too high. Than there is the question of how reliable the GC population is for attracting fans anyway.

I think you're making a big assumption that success is the only way to build a fan base as well which i don't think is really true.

This is all massively off topic so there isn't any point having this conversation here.

 

[bobmar28]

Who got rid of the original Perth Reds? Was it News Ltd? If so they should contribute financially to the establishment of the Pirates.

 

[franklin2323]

Doubt bulldogs/eels will reach 35k with Hayne and the bulldogs players not there cause of origin. Absolutely dumb, stupid, idiotic scheduling to have this game during this period of the season.

When the draw was done. Maloney/Pearce were the NSW halves. Leaving Hayne and Morris as the only origin players. Still would of been a decent game in that case. So a fortune teller to do the draw next year?

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Seems weird that one week titans doubles the suns crowd , then a week later it goes the other way

 

[guyver78]

I know this probably sounds counter intuitive but i think permanently being on the top of the ladder isn't necessarily as good for crowds as everyone thinks. I think lean periods help to galvanize a fan base. I'm not sure what the reason is but the teams who just sit at the top don't seem to really see much benefit from it.

I think sitting at the bottom of the ladder obviously hurts crowd numbers but when things turn around it gives a big boost. It makes people hyped because they may not be used to success and may not be sure when they will see it again. There isn't as much excitement about it when you are always successful.

Good Post, the above is all true!

 

[Bronco Rob]

Deadset gee up. There wasn't 8k there. Seriously be lucky to be 3-4k there.

I disagree, the stand on the camera side was pretty full which is the bigger of the 2 main stands and there was more of a sprinkle of fans in the outer areas than other games I've seen at Canberra, 8k looked right to me.

RL has a much stronger background in Perth than it ever did in Melbourne. We have already seen that they could get fans when they did have a team. The situations simply aren't comparable at all.

As for the titans they have their own issues. Their stadium is in a terrible spot and their ticket prices are far too high. Than there is the question of how reliable the GC population is for attracting fans anyway.

I think you're making a big assumption that success is the only way to build a fan base as well which i don't think is really true.

This is all massively off topic so there isn't any point having this conversation here.

Also the Perth population are renowned for their love of sporting teams. Even the Force with their miserable record still got a reasonable turnout each week and with a little success the fans came back in numbers.

The landscape for a Perth side is so far removed from the Western Reds days and anyone who knows the history the fans left the Reds in droves due to the protest at the Reds joining Super League and they had massive travel costs which they had to fund themselves.

The more we ignore them the less motivated the key individuals driving the expansion side will be. I just don't get the argument against them when we have teams in Sydney with catchments of 200k who struggle to get average crowds of 10k and struggle to attain corporate support.

We have the chance to enter a market that is 10% of Australia's population. We keep trumpeting how our product is so good so then why don't we have confidence in that product to expand into a new market?

 

[guyver78]

I disagree, the stand on the camera side was pretty full which is the bigger of the 2 main stands and there was more of a sprinkle of fans in the outer areas than other games I've seen at Canberra, 8k looked right to me.



Also the Perth population are renowned for their love of sporting teams. Even the Force with their miserable record still got a reasonable turnout each week and with a little success the fans came back in numbers.

The landscape for a Perth side is so far removed from the Western Reds days and anyone who knows the history the fans left the Reds in droves due to the protest at the Reds joining Super League and they had massive travel costs which they had to fund themselves.

The more we ignore them the less motivated the key individuals driving the expansion side will be. I just don't get the argument against them when we have teams in Sydney with catchments of 200k who struggle to get average crowds of 10k and struggle to attain corporate support.

We have the chance to enter a market that is 10% of Australia's population. We keep trumpeting how our product is so good so then why don't we have confidence in that product to expand into a new market?

Because it COSTS a lot of money with no guarantee of any sort of return for a good decade if not longer. Don't you think the NRL would have already done it by now if it made sense financially?

To put things into perspective the Broncos generated 32million in 2012 of which only 2million was net profit and they were considered by far the most successful. Expansion always comes up as a debate in the NRL and every year nothing is done because the costs and risks are too high.

I have a feeling the only time they will expand is when current NRL franchises start performing a bit better financially.